Checking Volkswagen's Car-Net infotainment in the 2018 Passat

October 19, 2018

Transcript

Welcome to deep dive into the technology of the 2018 Volkswagen passat.
And if this system looks old to you, you are right.
This is straight out of its day view from 2012.
So lets take a look at see if there is anything new on top.
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So is the system so old?
Well, it's basically the same thing that we've been seeing since 2012 when this car debuted.
We've only got 6.3 inch screen paired to competitors screen size of seven or eight inches.
But having said that, it is really old, but it's really easy to operate.
Everything is done by the touch screen, there's no separate to dial done here in the center console.
I've got a bunch of shortcut buttons down here on either side.
But I can also press the menu button, and that will give every single option, including my settings.
Now, one of the things I really like is it's super easy to set a radio preset.
And I know that's a small thing, but for me, it's really important.
All I need to do is press and hold the tile, and I've got it done.
Other systems, I've gotta go through menus and submenus, but here it's super easy.
Moving along to media here you can listen to stuff that you've got on your phone, either through the Bluetooth or through the one USB port that's here in the front.
There's a second USB port for rare seat passengers but it's charge only.
When it comes to the phone it was really easy to pair my phone with the system using Bluetooth, and I can set up some favorites here so I can just have them right there on the screen, look, mom home [SOUND] Now, when it comes to navigation, sure the graphics are little but you're still gonna get there, that's the whole point of navigation right?
In terms of this screen you can pinch to zoom, it's a little bit laggy but for something that so old, it's not really so bad.
One thing I do like is that it has these proximity sensors so you don't even need to actually touch the screen, those choices will just come up when you get your finger close to it.
But again, it is not to its age, in your point of interest searches?
All you've got a gas station, parking lots and restaurants.
And lot of other systems allow you to search for it airports, bus stations, hotels, all of those things.
Just got 3 choices.
But really who cares about navigation and media when it's kinda app [UNKNOWN] android [UNKNOWN].
So all i need to do is plug in my phone, the interface shows up here on my screen and that's probably how I'm gonna be doing all of those functions anyway.
Now we don't have any word on when Volkswagen is going to give us the next generation of the [UNKNOWN] but there is an all new [UNKNOWN] if you don't [UNKNOWN] something a little bit smaller.
It's gonna give a little bit better technology.
We've got a review of that new Jetta plus a full review of this 2018 Passat over on TheRoadShow.com.
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